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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Tapping Diaspora Can Spur Lebanon Growth

By Elias Sakr

Lebanon’s
expatriate community funneled $8.2 billion in remittances into the country last
year, accounting for 22.4 percent of the country’s total GDP, according to the
World Bank, and making it the 12th largest recipient of remittances globally While
this money plays a substantial role in the economy, many in the country argue
that remittances come at the expense of human capital, as fresh graduates
continue to seek job opportunities abroad.

At
the same time, some members of the expatriate community are suggesting that
their contribution to Lebanon goes beyond cash, arguing that the government
should take advantage of the nearly 4 million Lebanese passport holders living
abroad to create real growth and build a real partnership between the homeland
and the diaspora community.

Among
several fields that could benefit greatly from cooperation between Lebanon’s
public and private sectors on the one hand, and expatriates on the other, are
medicine and science.

Dr.
Tanios Bekaii-Saab, medical director of the gastrointestinal cancer program at
the Ohio State University Medical Center, is one of those 4 million Lebanese
living abroad.

Bekaii,
who left Lebanon for the U.S. in the late 1990s to continue his medical
studies, laments the many lost opportunities from the almost non-existent
cooperation between Lebanon’s scientific community and expatriates in the U.S.

Bekaii
holds private Lebanese academic institutions responsible for failing to take
the initiative, as much as he blames the government for neglecting the
importance of connecting with its expatriate community.

“It
is a multifaceted problem. First, the state should start funding research.
Second, academic institutions should connect with their alumni,” he tells The
Daily Star.

While
Bekaii doesn’t find the Lebanese government’s reluctance to fund research
programs surprising, he says that universities and academic institutions could
benefit immensely, with relatively minimum efforts, from the exchange of
expertise with Lebanese expatriates in the medical and science fields.

“[The]
American University of Beirut has a powerhouse in the U.S. because they
graduate 50 to 60 doctors who go to the U.S., and out of those, two to three
end up working in research program[s],” says Bekaii, himself an AUB med school
graduate. “AUB should find a way to connect with them.”

“The
university has to keep track of its graduates and take advantage of its
connections. Both the university will benefit and its graduates will benefit.
It’s a win-win situation. AUB has graduated nearly 30 people who are currently
medical program directors and chairman in the U.S.,” he adds. “This should be
source of pride for AUB.”

Bekaii
said Lebanese universities lose contact with their alumni in part because they
haven’t established a mechanism of cooperation at the academic level.

“We
should not be looking to establish contact only on a social level, through the
organization of gatherings or picnics, but also on an academic level, through
the organization of expert panels and seminars,” Bekaii says.

Academic
institutions should also consider broadening their contacts with more than “one
or two well-known universities in the U.S., because there are 50 states and
every university has its strengths,” Bekaii says.

Like
universities, Lebanese hospitals could also benefit from the expertise of the
expatriate community through the organization of peer review panels, according
to Bekaii.

While
Lebanese hospitals are excellently equipped for clinical care, they fall short
of standards when it comes to research, he says.

Cooperation
between institutions abroad and Lebanon’s scientific community would not only
boost know-how in the country, but would help secure funds to perform medical
and scientific research in Lebanon, Bekaii says, citing, as an example,
collaboration between his research program and one in Egypt.

“We
collaborate with Egypt. Egypt has been funding a storage bank of liver cancer
cells and the U.S. National Cancer Institute is funding research conducted by
an Egyptian scientist because he is collaborating with our program. Why
collaborate with Egypt and not Lebanon?” Bekaii asks.

He
argues that the Lebanese government should consider allocating funds to spend
on enhancing research, particularly at the Lebanese University.

“In
the U.S., the government is the driver of research programs. At our university,
the largest share comes from the federal government [the National Cancer
Institute] followed by industry money from pharmaceutical companies and wealthy
donors,” Bekaii said.

“It
costs $1 million to develop a vaccine in the U.S. for the first step alone … we
have brilliant minds in LU but they are not exposed to research,” Bekaii says.
“Lebanon could be a hub for medical care and research in the Middle East if
properly funded.”

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...